Greater Paris Area Q1 2020 Market Report

In 2019, France’s overall GDP was 1,2%, an improvement from the 1,7% recorded in 2018. This decrease can be attributed to social movements surrounding pension reform; the French GDP was also influenced by a weaker household confidence that had been steadily rising since the beginning of the year. The good news is that unemployment fell to 7,9% in the French mainland at the end of the quarter; nearly 24 000 jobs were created in the public sector and an additional 263 000 in the private.

Though the global economy was in great shape at the beginning of 2020, the current coronavirus pandemic is causing volatility in the world’s financial markets. On March 27th, after weeks of the COVID-19 threatening another economic crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officially declared a global recession.